Laser Cutting Service

Laser cutting service by Fractory makes ordering really easy. You can now upload your files for instant quotes. After confirming the price, we will take care of the manufacturing and delivery of the parts to your selected address.

Laser cutting allows great flexibility, accuracy and top quality. It can cut very complex shapes.

State of the art automated laser cutters need little manpower. Combining their autonomous nature to their swiftness, Fractory’s online laser cutting platform allows to keep your project costs low.

The accuracy tolerance for positioning is +/- 0.1 mm. Thermal effects on the material are small, therefore it is possible to cut small holes with a minimum diameter of 1/2 the material thickness as well as holes that can be threaded after cutting without requiring additional machining. The cutting line width it is smaller than 0.5 mm for most materials.

Fractory’s manufacturing network offers lasers that can cut a number of materials. These include carbon steel, stainless steel, high-strength steels as well as non-ferrous materials like aluminium, brass, copper and titanium. For metal plates thicker than 20 mm, see more about our plasma cutting capabilities. Aluminium cutting has its own rules.

Our Capabilities

How to Order?

Uploading your CAD files onto our platform gives you instant pricing. You can submit the files here. If you want more info, feel free to check out our tutorial page for laser cutting quotes online.

Delivery

The company is based in Manchester but we deliver all over the UK, including all the larger cities like London, Manchester, Liverpool or any other place.

The lead times are fast – a maximum of 9 days. And we send the products right to your selected address, taking care of the transportation.

Our Customers & Projects

We have manufactured a lot of different parts for a wide range of projects. The only common denominator for all of them is “metal” because we only perform metal cutting at Fractory.

The projects include custom metal cut parts for many industries but also hobbyists with one-off parts.

Some of our client segments include:

Machine builders – machine components, panels, etc.

Car manufacturers – panels, rollcages, chassis etc.

Maritime industry – aluminium frames

Robot building – frame, bodyworks, moving parts, etc.

Forestry & agricultural machinery – panels, frames, etc.

Art studios – signs and signage

Fashion designers – metal jewellery

We would advise to look at our design requirements first in order to avoid parts that cannot be produced. The main design principles revolve around cut widths suitable for production.

What Materials Can We Cut?

Fractory only focuses on one group of materials – different types of metal. Therefore, we include a list of most common metals with their maximum recommended thickness for getting the best quality results:

Mild steel – up to 25 mm

Stainless steel – up to 30 mm

Special steels (Hardox, Strenx, etc.) – up to 20 mm

Coated steel – up to 5 mm

Aluminium – up to 30 mm

Copper alloys – up to 12 mm

Lasers are suitable for cutting a variety of non-metal materials. These include MDF, acrylic, wood, card, paper, etc. Unfortunately, we do not offer such cutting services at the moment.

Online Laser Cutting

Adding your metal cut part drawings to the platform

Laser cutting online makes quick pricing possible. You can get an instant quote for your STP part file or DXF drawing. There’s no more need for detailed drawings. Thus, you can save a lot of time by skipping the drawings part of an engineer’s job.

Online laser cutting’s pricing algorithms make it possible to design things keeping cost in mind. Also, it helps you to see how the prices change for scaling up the production. Ordering from Fractory ends up with our algorithms choosing the best suited manufacturing partner. The choice depends on a manufacturer’s availability, location, expertise, etc.

As our system knows all this info, we can reduce lead times, provide competitive prices and find a manufacturer with the right expertise for any project.

What Is Laser Cutting?

Laser cutting is a thermal cutting process where the cut is made using an amplified light beam – laser. A high-power laser is able to achieve high quality results for metal cutting. Lasers can be used for any metalwork, including industrial applications.

It is more precise and less energy-consuming than plasma cutting, but is more limited when it comes to cutting thick materials.

Fractory’s laser cutting service offers CO2 and fibre lasers. While both use concentrated laser beams, the beam generation process uses different mechanisms. Both technologies have certain advantages, making them useful in certain situations.

Advantages of Laser Cutting

As already discussed, laser technology has an edge over other cutting methods when it comes to certain qualities. All those can work for your cause, if you are aware of them.

The main advantages of laser cutting:

Great flexibility – One sheet may have 100 different cuts without having to change tools. Also, it is possible to cut all kinds of intricate shapes.

Precision – Accuracy of+/- 0.1 mm gives the possibility to really cater to your most demanding needs. This kind of precision also ensures high quality.

Repeatability – +/- 0.05 mm ensures close to identical details.

Speed – Laser cutters are known for their speed, especially when cutting thin metal sheets.

Saves money – The machines are getting more energy efficient. Shuttle tables reduce the need for handling which means less need for manual labour. Smaller manufacturing costs result in lower priced details for the buyer.

Saving time – Laser cutting is automated. Therefore, it is the machinery that reads the drawings. The drawings only need to include cutting lines. This saves a lot of time in the drawing room.

Small areas of HAZ – The heat affected zone is an unwanted byproduct of thermal cutting methods. As laser cutting has a small cutting kerf, the heat is not dispersed as heavily as with other cutting methods, leaving a smaller HAZ.

Contact

If you have any questions regarding the possibilities on offer, don’t hesitate to contact us via email at info@fractory.com. One of our team members will get back to you at the first opportunity.